This is a simple article detailing different methods of Arch/Windows coexistence.

This is a simple article detailing different methods of Arch/Windows coexistence.

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{{Out of date|GRUB Legacy support has been dropped from Arch Linux:<br> https://www.archlinux.org/news/grub-legacy-no-longer-supported/}}

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== BIOS Systems ==

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==Windows and Arch Dual Booting==

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In this example, we will install Windows first, and subsequently install the GRUB bootloader along with Arch, allowing for dual boot.

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Installation will be standard, but there are a few things to keep in mind:

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=== Using a Linux boot loader ===

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1. You may have to use logical partitions for some of your partitions, because there can only be up to 4 primary partitions per disk.

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You may use [[GRUB#Dual-booting|GRUB]] or [[Syslinux#Chainloading|Syslinux]].

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2. Remember to write down your partitions numbers: "sda1, sda2... sda8", noting which type of partitions belong to their relevant number. For example:

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=== Using Windows boot loader ===

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:; sda1 : {{ic|Windows}} - 30 GB should be enough. Many new games exceed 10GB each so bear this in mind.

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Another option is sort of the reverse of what is described at the beginning of this article where GRUB loads the Windows boot loader, which then loads Windows. Under this option, the Windows boot loader load GRUB, which then loads Arch.

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:; sda2 : {{ic|/boot}} - 100 MB is enough '''(optional)'''

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:; sda3 : {{ic|/}} - 10 GB should be enough. If you're planning on using KDE or installing a bunch of games, you may wish to allocate more; perhaps 15 GB.

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:; sda4: {{ic|swap}} - between 1024 MB and 4096 MB '''(optional)'''. With 2 GB+ RAM you may even wish to skip it entirely. If you're only using swap for hibernation, you can also use a [https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Swap#Swap_file swapfile], which will free up one of those 4 primary partitions.

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:; sda5: {{ic|/home}} - rest of the drive '''(optional)'''

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{{Note|Older motherboards have a 1024 cylinder limit. This means that the BIOS cannot access things beyond the 1024th cylinder (about 8.5 GB), so the {{ic|/boot}} partition should be in the first 8.5 GB (most likely before the Windows partition). [http://gparted.sourceforge.net/livecd.php GParted Live], [http://partedmagic.com Parted Magic] or [http://www.sysresccd.org/Main_Page SystemRescueCd] are useful for moving and resizing partitions to accommodate this.}}

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==== Using Windows 7/8 boot loader ====

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3. When installing GRUB, you must configure {{ic|/boot/grub/menu.lst}}), and '''make sure to install GRUB to {{ic|/boot}} (or root ({{ic|/}}) if you did not create a separate partition for {{ic|/boot}})'''. ''Installing GRUB onto your Windows partition may cause Windows not to boot.'' There should be about three lines at the end of the file that speak about chainloading to boot other OSs, these can most generally be uncommented if you follow above convention, this would place windows boot point at hd0,0 or sda1. Thus you would have something akin to this:

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The following section contains excerpts from http://www.iceflatline.com/2009/09/how-to-dual-boot-windows-7-and-linux-using-bcdedit/.

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{{Note|The above instruction is in conflict with the GRUB installation position documented in [[GRUB#General notes about bootloader installation]] which says GRUB should be installed to MBR or the first partition to be recognized by most BIOS.}}

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{{Note|It is also possible to install GRUB to MBR ({{ic|/dev/sda}}). This works fine with Windows 7.}}

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# Windows XP

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title Windows XP

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rootnoverify (hd0,0)

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chainloader +1

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The parts of this entry break down as follows:

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The remainder of the setup is similar to a typical installation. Some documents state that the partition being loaded by the Windows boot loader must be a primary partition but I have used this without problem on an extended partition.

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:; title Windows XP : Can be anything you like; it will just be what is displayed in the GRUB boot-up screen

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* When installing the GRUB boot loader, install it on your {{ic|/boot}} partition rather than the MBR. {{Note|For instance, my {{ic|/boot}} partition is {{ic|/dev/sda5}}. So I installed GRUB at {{ic|/dev/sda5}} instead of {{ic|/dev/sda}}. For help on doing this, see [[GRUB#Install to partition or partitionless disk]]}}

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:; rootnoverify (hd0,0) : Remember the partition numbers we wrote down, here you write in the partition number of your windows partition. This sets the windows boot at root, even though GRUB cannot read it.

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* Under Linux make a copy of the boot info by typing the following at the command shell:

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:; chainloader +1 : What this does is call the Windows boot loader that is still in MBR in our case, since GRUB cannot boot Windows itself.

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my_windows_part=/dev/sda3

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my_boot_part=/dev/sda5

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mkdir /media/win

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mount $my_windows_part /media/win

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dd if=$my_boot_part of=/media/win/linux.bin bs=512 count=1

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*The file is read from the top down, so the system listed first will be the one to automatically boot, if no keys are pressed during the GRUB boot screen.

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* Boot to Windows and open up and you should be able to see the FAT32 partition. Copy the linux.bin file to {{ic|C:\}}. Now run '''cmd''' with administrator privileges (navigate to ''Start > All Programs > Accessories'', right-click on ''Command Prompt'' and select ''Run as administrator''):

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*GRUB uses a zero indexed system of numbering drives and partitions, which is a different convention than you may be used to seeing:

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First disk, first partition=sda1=hd0,0

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First disk, second partition=sda2=hd0,1

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Second disk, first partition=sdb1=hd1,0

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==Dual Booting from Multiple Hard Drives==

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bcdedit /create /d “Linux” /application BOOTSECTOR

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To dual boot from two separate hard drives (e.g., one dedicated Linux drive and one dedicated Windows drive).

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=== Windows + Arch ===

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* BCDEdit will return an alphanumeric identifier for this entry that I will refer to as {ID} in the remaining steps. You’ll need to replace {ID} by the actual returned identifier. An example of {ID} is {d7294d4e-9837-11de-99ac-f3f3a79e3e93}.

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You have Windows installed on the first hard drive and you want to install Arch on the second one.

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bcdedit /set {ID} device partition=c:

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Follow this procedure :

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bcdedit /set {ID} path \linux.bin

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bcdedit /displayorder {ID} /addlast

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bcdedit /timeout 30

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# Unplug the Windows hard drive (this is not needed if you are sure you know which drive have the Windows on it and which one is supposed to receive Arch. But this way you are sure you won't do any mistake)

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Reboot and enjoy. In my case I'm using the Windows boot loader so that I can map my Dell Precision M4500's second power button to boot Linux instead of Windows.

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# Install Arch on the second hard drive (that has become the first if you have unplug the Windows one)

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# Be sure to install GRUB on the MBR on the Arch drive (I didn't test with syslinux but it should work too).

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# At the end of the process you should be able to boot on Arch but not on Windows (the disk is unplug and even if not, GRUB doesn't know how to boot Windows... Yet !)

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# Log in on Arch

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#Edit /boot/grub/menu.lst (that needs root access),At the end add :

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(2) Windows

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title Seven

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rootnoverify (hd0,0)

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makeactive

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chainloader +1

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I use '(2)' because '(0)' and '(1)' are already used by Arch.

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If you want Windows to be loaded by default (the happy wife, happy life way !)

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==== Using Windows 2000/XP boot loader ====

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Change the 'default' value by the one used for declaring Windows just before (here it is '2').

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Ex :

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# general configuration:

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timeout 8

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default 2

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7/halt your computer and plug-in the Windows drive

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For information on this method see http://www.geocities.com/epark/linux/grub-w2k-HOWTO.html. I do not believe there are any distinct advantages of this method over the Linux boot loader; you will still need a {{ic|/boot}} partition, and this one is arguably more difficult to set up.

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8/Restart the computer.

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== UEFI Systems ==

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You should see the GRUB menu proposing Arch and Windows. Select the one you want et voila !

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=== Arch + Windows ===

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Both [[Gummiboot]] and [[UEFI_Bootloaders#Using_rEFInd|rEFInd]] autodetect '''Windows Boot Manager''' {{ic|\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\bootmgfw.efi}} and show it in their boot menu, so there is no manual config required.

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If Windows is not on the first hard drive, the Windows boot loader must be "tricked" into thinking Windows is on the first hard drive. Do this by adding the following lines to your menu.lst config file:

So the entry for Windows on second disk, first partition will look like this:

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Syslinux (as of version 6.01) and ELILO do not support chainloading other EFI applications, so they cannot be used to chainload {{ic|\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\bootmgfw.efi}} .

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title Microsoft Windows XP Professional

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root (hd1,0)

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savedefault

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makeactive

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map (hd0) (hd1)

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map (hd1) (hd0)

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chainloader +1

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Or if the above configuration doesn't work, you might try the one below from the Arch Wiki GRUB page:

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== See also ==

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title Windows

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map (hd0) (hd1)

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map (hd1) (hd0)

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rootnoverify (hd1,0)

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makeactive #if you use Windows7 this line should be commented out

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chainloader +1

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More information on GRUB configuration can be found in [http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/manual/grub.html the GRUB manual].

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==Other Layouts==

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1. You could use:

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:; sda1 : Windows XP

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:; sda2 : swap

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:; sda3 : root

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:; sda4 : home

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and not use an extended partition (as {{ic|/boot}} will be in the {{ic|/}} partition as well).

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2. LVM (Logical Volume Management) is also an option. You could simply create a single LVM partition and then create the other partitions inside the LVM physical volume. This allows a single partition to hold all your needed GNU/Linux data, and allows you to easily change partitions when necessary.

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==Notes on /home==

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You may not wish to store you documents on this mountpoint, especially if you wish to share data between both Windows and Arch Linux. Either use a shared NTFS partition (via [[NTFS-3G]]) or install [http://www.ext2fsd.com/ Ext2Fsd] in Windows, which will let you mount EXT4 partitions, even as Read-Only (a good idea in keeping the files virus-free).

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==Using Windows boot-loader==

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Another option is sort of the reverse of what is described at the beginning of this article where GRUB loads the Windows boot loader, which then loads Windows. Under this option, the Windows boot loader load GRUB, which then loads arch.

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===Using Windows 7/8 Boot-Loader===

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Excerpted from http://www.iceflatline.com/2009/09/how-to-dual-boot-windows-7-and-linux-using-bcdedit/

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In order to have the Windows boot-loader see the linux partition, one of the linux partitions created needs to be FAT32 (in this case, /dev/sda3). The remainder of the setup is similar to a typical installation. Some documents state that the partition being loaded by the Win boot-loader must be a primary partition but I have used this without problem on an extended partition.

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*When installing the grub bootloader, install it on your '''/boot''' partition rather than the MBR. {{Note| For instance, my '''/boot''' partition is '''/dev/sda5'''. So I installed grub at '''/dev/sda5''' instead of '''/dev/sda''' <br> For help on doing this, see [[Grub#Install to Partition or Partitionless Disk]]}}

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*Under linux make a copy of the boot info by typing the following at the command shell:

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<pre>

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my_windows_part=/dev/sda3

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my_boot_part=/dev/sda5

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mkdir /media/win

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mount $my_windows_part /media/win

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dd if=$my_boot_part of=/media/win/linux.bin bs=512 count=1

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</pre>

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*Boot to windows and open up and you should be able to see the FAT32 partition. Copy the linux.bin file to C:\. Now run '''cmd''' with administrator privileges (navigate to Start->All Programs->Accessories, Right-click on Command Prompt and select “Run as administrator.”)

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<pre>

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bcdedit /create /d “Linux” /application BOOTSECTOR

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</pre>

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*BCDEdit will return an alphanumeric identifier for this entry that I will refer to as {ID} in the remaining steps. You’ll need to replace {ID} by the actual returned identifier. An example of {ID} is {d7294d4e-9837-11de-99ac-f3f3a79e3e93}.

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<pre>

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bcdedit /set {ID} device partition=c:

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bcdedit /set {ID} path \linux.bin

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bcdedit /displayorder {ID} /addlast

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bcdedit /timeout 30

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</pre>

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Done! Reboot and enjoy. In my case I'm using the Win bootloader so that I can map my Dell Precision M4500's second power button to boot linux instead of windows.

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===Using Windows 2000/XP Bootloader===

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For information on this method see http://www.geocities.com/epark/linux/grub-w2k-HOWTO.html. I do not believe there are any distinct advantages of this method over the Linux bootloader; you will still need a {{ic|/boot}} partition, and this one is arguably more difficult to set up.

BIOS Systems

Using a Linux boot loader

Using Windows boot loader

Another option is sort of the reverse of what is described at the beginning of this article where GRUB loads the Windows boot loader, which then loads Windows. Under this option, the Windows boot loader load GRUB, which then loads Arch.

Using Windows 7/8 boot loader

The remainder of the setup is similar to a typical installation. Some documents state that the partition being loaded by the Windows boot loader must be a primary partition but I have used this without problem on an extended partition.

When installing the GRUB boot loader, install it on your /boot partition rather than the MBR.

Boot to Windows and open up and you should be able to see the FAT32 partition. Copy the linux.bin file to C:\. Now run cmd with administrator privileges (navigate to Start > All Programs > Accessories, right-click on Command Prompt and select Run as administrator):

bcdedit /create /d “Linux” /application BOOTSECTOR

BCDEdit will return an alphanumeric identifier for this entry that I will refer to as {ID} in the remaining steps. You’ll need to replace {ID} by the actual returned identifier. An example of {ID} is {d7294d4e-9837-11de-99ac-f3f3a79e3e93}.